LAUSITZ, Germany - The most enthusiastic spectators at the Red Bull Air Race training session on Thursday were the pilots themselves. They were enjoying watching the flying on site for the first time in three years -- because the race track and the race airport are at the same location.
“This is just fantastic,” Britain’s Nigel Lamb said with big smile as he watched his rival pilots fly through the track at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz -- the first race over land since Interlaken, Switzerland in 2007. “You can see everything that’s going on in one location: the taking off, the flying through the track, the landing. The spectators are going to have a fantastic view of everything here. They’re going to be looking down from the grandstands into the track at the flying below. It’s fabulous.”
His compatriot Paul Bonhomme was also still sweating in his G-race suit as he stood next to Lamb, savouring the chance to watch Matthias Dolderer of Germany and Peter Besenyei of Hungary among others zip through the track at an altitude of 20 meters. Most race airports are set up from two to 40 kilometers away from the track. But at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz everything is set up at the one location. “I think it’s a great venue and personally I wish we’d had a lot more of these during the last 50 races because they’re designed for motor racing,” he said. “Motor racing venues are perfect locations. They’ve got grandstands, they’re set up for it, and we’ve got a runway on site. I’m going to enjoy this weekend.”
Venue comes alive for motorsport
Bonhomme, hoping to clinch his second world championship, said the logistics of the Red Bull Air Race are impressive -- moving the complete racing infrastructure with some 400 tonnes of material around the planet to the centre of some of the world’s biggest cities. He also loves flying in front of backdrops such as New York and Rio. But motor sports venues like the EuroSpeedway Lausitz are special, he said.
“The iconic locations are fantastic and maybe it would be better to have one or two locations like that a year -- and the rest like this,” said Bonhomme. “Look at Formula One -- it has a few iconic locations like Monaco but the rest are at dusty race tracks in the middle of nowhere. If you go to Silverstone on a wet Wednesday in February it is a pretty depressing place. But on a summer’s afternoon with 100,000 people it comes alive. And I think this place is going to come alive this weekend.”
Hannes Arch of Austria also was enjoying the chance to watch his rivals going through the track on a warm summer morning in August. There could be some 70,000 spectators filling the most modern grandstands in Europe that ring the track set up in the infield. “It’s cool to fly in this stadium,” Arch said at his hangar in front of the grandstand.
Australia’s Matt Hall was especially enthused about the chance to fly directly in front of a big crowd. He got a career-best second place at his home race in Perth, where thousands of fans lined up at the race airport to cheer him on each time he took off and landed. “This event is going to be absolutely fantastic because for the first time we’ve got the race airport in the race track and the crowd circling the whole track and airport in the grandstands. It’s one location for the entire event. We’ve always had the race airport away from the track. It’s like racing in a giant stadium. This is as good as it gets.”
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